Gulf Oil Lubricants unveils new movie-based campaign, showcasing ‘together we are unstoppable’ tagline

Gulf Oil Lubricants India has launched a groundbreaking campaign that redefines traditional advertising by introducing a movie that reflects the brand's capabilities and values. This bold initiative is designed to showcase Gulf Oil's commitment to its tagline, "Together We Are Unstoppable," and spans the company's entire product range. The campaign seeks to resonate with consumers on a deeper level, reinforcing the brand's core message.

To explore the inspiration behind the campaign and Gulf Oil’s strategy for making it a lasting success for both brand recognition and business growth, CNBC-TV18 interviewed Ravi Chawla, MD & CEO of Gulf Oil Lubricants India, and Amit Wadhwa, CEO of Dentsu Creative Group.

Below are the excerpts of the conversation.

Q: It is an action-packed campaign and let's just dial back to that point. The category that you operate in, it's a low involvement, very product performance-driven category. Dial back to the genesis of the campaign. What inspired you to do this as a movie, an action movie?

Chawla: The genesis of the ad has been our journey as a brand. We've been a brand with a human touch, I would say. As you know, the category is very low involvement, mid-involvement, a lot of rationale behind buying lubricants. But human connect is always what people want to see. And, together we are unstoppable is about that – the challenge, the emotions, the passion.

So when we conceived this campaign, we, of course, wanted to bring all our three brand ambassadors together. And that was the creation of this action film, which Dentsu, they gave us the kind of whole details of the campaign, and we fell for it.

Q: You have quite a lineup- you have MS Dhoni, who's been your ambassador for a very long time. You have Hardik Pandya, again, seven years I think, now. And you have Smriti Mandhana. So you have a very sort of balanced lineup there as well.

Chawla: Yes, one legend and two superstars. So it's great to have them on the field. They've been doing so many rescue acts on the field, and here's another one.

Q: Tell me how did you sort of go from the brief to the end point?

Wadhwa: The brief wasn't just about being together we are unstoppable of course we had to stand true to what the brand is but I think the brief from Ravi and the team was very clear that we want to do it in a different way that's what the brand is that's what the brand has done in the past and I think that's the ambition to do it in the future also.

So that was the brief. And when you think of this brief and you think of three cricket superstars coming together, we said what do we do because that just made it exciting. Then the team sat together and what they figured out was, let's bring two biggest passions of this country -cricket and cinema. Three big cricketers, the legends and the superstars of today coming together actually in an action film was the high point. And I think once we had the idea and we shared it with Ravi and we knew instantly that we had something really exciting. And I think together the Dentsu team and the Gulf team then sat down and said let's make it happen.

Q: What sort of impact that you're hoping this campaign will have on the brand and on the business, on the bottom line?

Chawla: The launch as a movie is of course, as Amit said, it's about Bollywood and cricket. So we said why not do it Bollywood style this time. So that's an innovative thing. If you look at the business behind what we are doing today, our products are long range products, they are industry leaders. We have done a lot in terms of giving both performance of our products, making our products last longer.

It's about endurance. So when you look at what we are doing today in terms of being unstoppable, it's exactly that. So our products and now our connect with this campaign- we have had campaigns in the past which is talking about the fun part of life. But really, when you look at where we are today as a world, as a country, it's all about that vision, that passion, the determination, the self-belief that we can overcome every challenge. So, I think it's that connect with people which will obviously sway people towards looking at Gulf. So, it is a brand impact campaign. We will be putting it across a lot of media and hopefully, we will have the consumers and all our supporters, rooting more for Gulf.